1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of medical electronics. More specifically, the present invention relates to means for monitoring and displaying vital signs including EKG of a patient in a line-over-line compressed-data manner which facilitates analysis.
2. Description of Prior Art
Over the years, various medical-electronic systems have been developed which aid physicians in diagnosing and providing therapy to patients. Particularly, in the area of cardiology and heart disease, there have been significant advances. For example, heart pacers and EKG monitoring equipment are but two of the types of equipment that have proved to be valuable to physician and patient alike. These devices are now tending to become somewhat familiar to laymen as well.
As is well known in the medical field, EKG strips are taken by a physician by attaching leads or conductors to the body of a patient (generally three leads). Electrical signal activity generated by the patient's heart is sensed by these conductors or sensors. These electrical signals are extended to EKG amplifiers and eventually to galvanometer pens for scribing on the surface of a paper. The paper is generally spool-wound chart paper and advanced in a continuous manner, the direction of advance of paper being the direction of a time axis. Deflections of the galvanometer pen are generally perpendicular or transverse to direction of motion of the paper. The resultant trace, if the EKG is taken for any appreciable length of time, is very long. Anyone with experience in this field knows that the accumulated chart paper is unwieldy and cumbersome. It is thus difficult to accurately compare a patient's heart activity over periods of an hour or more when the EKG is left running continuously. Simply, too much paper exists for facile manual control and analysis. This is a severe problem of the prior art.
The present invention is a solution to the prior art problem of recording and displaying large quantities of vital sign data and particularly the EKG of a patient. It provides an automatic line-over-line compression of data in a compact and easily usable form and thus facilitates analysis.